Level One: Camping and Festival Circuit, Level 2 Again and Back to Level 1

 

Been level 1 a long time now.  I've kept up with some projects.  Gotten through the holidays.  It is summer.  I made it through the cold Waikato New Zealand winter.  I think I am one of the luckiest people on the planet at the moment- summer  2021 and I'm able to do things.

I think this is going to be a photo-heavy, text light post as I'm behind in the level changes!

I start tiling the bathroom.  Eventually it goes from disco themed to jungle disco themed.  Takes me weeks to finish but I do finish the floor in the bathroom and hallway.

My tent gets its first debut and my friend's ex-father-in-law's girlfriend's bach, right on the beach in Te Kaha.  Neighbors come and use the beach to go fishing and do a bonfire.

We go to a nearby macadamia nut farm where the driveway is filled with shells.

I'm spending time doing aerial yoga and can pull myself up, albeit with cussing.  By the time of writing this I can pull myself up with just grunting, so I'm getting better and better.  I take walks and the cows and horses are my friends.  I find flowers shaped like hearts.

Ignition

And then, Ignition, a festival based on Burning man principles.  I have a friend from SF who attends and I bring the guy I've been seeing, who hasn't been to such a festival (based of burning man principles, not just music) before.  We have both a good time and a difficult time.  Overall, though, I very much enjoy Ignition.  I make friends with my neighbors who camp nearby.  In fact, I have since seen all my immediate neighbors.

The below is an absolutely awesome camp that popped up for one day, had a fFench themed hangout place and the best DJs.  And then the next day they were gone.  I didn't spend enough time appreciating them.

Inside my fancy tent, complete with the cheap wardrobe that I had bought for my room that Jacqueline said just wouldn't do.  Well- it is fancy in my tent!

I made a "five minute friend" named James.  He told me about the treehouse being built and we found the very cool camp that wasn't there the day before (and, sadly, left the next day).

James wanted to get a gin and tonic.  I got mine and sat and waited for him for a bit.

And I adventured on and had a nice time in a hammock.

And found the Camp of No Fun.  James really liked complaining about the Camp of No Fun and talking about how much fun he was going to have to show them.  Did I mention that James is super stylish?  I asked to take a photo but he declined so I'm just going to have to attempt to remember how fabulous he looked on my own.

My friend from SF has a friend who knits and had a super lovely space to share that I happened upon one night.  It was a place of respite for me.  And that may be the first time I've ever used the word respite!  She had a Falkor in there so of course it was amazing.

We name our camp of 2 "Special Friends" and I make a sign that glows with the solar black light I have.

Super awesome tent I come by and hang out in with my new friends, the next door neighbors: a German guy and a French-Canadian woman.

A camp I love because they have a lyra hoop and they show crazy movies.  The craziest movie I ever saw.  Some maybe Italian film about a guy that looks like Jesus and gets made into a paper mache and people chase him and other non-sequitor stuff.

My friend's art in the ceiling of the big dome at Ignition.  Reminds me of Firmament, a burning man art installation that I've had some great experiences with with my burning man adventure buddy.

Night where my buddy John and I are hanging out under Firmament and meet an Italian woman who is on her own and it is her birthday.

Ignition's big dome and another nearby dance camp.

Camp Special Friends

My departure and the cat when I return.

Kiwi Burn

James was also at Kiwi Burn.  I heard someone call him "Hurricane James" which is a lovely and accurate name.  He kept complaining about Camp No Fun and I'd run into him and hang with him from time to time.  I bring the guy I'm seeing to Kiwi Burn as well.  Like Ignition, he can only stay the first day and then returns for the end.  He can't stand Hurricane James.

Effigy that is burned.

One of my favorite camps at Kiwi Burn.

MCC, where I had gone with Hurricane James to get a gin and tonic at Ignition.

The temple.

There's more art at Kiwi  burn.

At Ignition there was a swimming hole that I went to 2-3 times a day.  Water was dumped in from a stream.  Kiwi Burn had a river.  I only went in on my first day and on my last day.  Kiwi Burn wasn't as hot.  There was plenty of art right near the river, which looked amazing at night.

I get my hair done.

Special friends is feeling frazzled.

Things implode with the guy I've been seeing.  Well- actually- he implodes.  To be vague and yet descriptive I was left with some, "woah.... there are people who do that?" moments which could be quite funny to laugh at in a movie.  Or be sad.  Or outraged.  I suppose based on how the story is told it could be all kinds of things, but memorable it was.  And yes, the imploding came to a head during the burn of the effigy, which I mostly missed.

My body has progressively been having more and more issues from Ignition to Kiwi Burn and beyond.  I'm doing a lot more walking than I'm used to and on very uneven ground.  I have to spend a lot of time with my massage gun so that my leg works for a while and I can get going reasonably for a while.  I was supposed to start physical therapy for my right hip flexor right before covid started.  This has now turned into an issue of right hip flexor, right knee, right ankle and right shin.  I think my several times a day stretching and working on front splits in the several first months of the pandemic did me a world of good and the few months since I've stopped are really showing it.

I gave away "love potions"/"special friend potions", massage oil necklaces and message in a bottle necklaces.  Here I am on the last day after I've tried to leave but told there is an ambulance coming so exodus is stalled, in true Burning Man fashion.  I went back to the hammocks.  My message in a bottle told me to find the one I need.  And so I messaged one of my best burning man buds (my adventure buddy that I hung out with at Firmament) and one of my new friends from Ignition who couldn't make it to Kiwi Burn (the German guy).

Shipwrecked, festival #3.

It has been one week at a festival, one week off, one week at a festival, one week off.  Last one of the summer: Shipwrecked.  My new Ignition friend, the German guy, invites me to go and on my last night at Kiwi Burn I decide I'm going because I'm not leaving the end of my festival time like it was.

I stop by one of the very few Taco Bells on the way there and here's my special hot sauce message:

This is the Shipwrecked site.  If you look closely on the right hand side you can see the campground.  I spend the first few hours at shipwrecked setting up tent then looking for my friends (German guy, French Canadian woman) that have just driven in.  

We walk into the main event (which took about 10-15 minutes to walk to) and I'm amazed.  It is beautiful.  They've got some of the same art as at Kiwi Burn and Walk of Wonders.

Recognize those from my picture from Kiwi Burn?  They look even better in front of a boat.

The first night I'm making friends without trying at all.  I'm just trying to eat my pizza.  I attribute it to wearing my unicorn wig, which I'm wearing because it is cold.  Unfortunately, I don't keep up the friend making for the rest of the festivals.  Well- sometimes I'm on it.  Sometimes I'm a loner.

I find the camp that I loved at Ignition that was only there for a night and I have loner time there and take a nice nap.  The DJ isn't as great as the one night I was there at Ignition, but still they had pretty great DJs.

Upside down boat with a great dance scene at night.

I make myself dress up and attempt to do some makeup.  I have Jacqueline's voice in my head.  Alas, I can try to get ready and I can make myself go out but that doesn't mean I'm up for it.  I hung out with some other friends from Ignition (this time a French guy who was also a foreign exchange student and married someone he met while here and his Kiwi wife) and went dancing with them but my leg has been hurting. I've turned into basically a rusty old wagon at Shipwrecked and I can barely get my body to move.  A drunk guy kept bumping into me and I was done.  Back to lonerville.

Disco ball.  I'm pretty sure this came from Walk of Wonders that I went to a few months ago.

----

Post-festival and Auckland goes to Level 3.  I skeddadle my way out of Auckland even though I was to stay with yet another friend and neighbor from Ignition.  I hadn't even realized she was American until she mentions something about the United States and I realize I haven't heard an accent from her.  Well- I got to see her, meet the rest of her family and chat and have dinner before I jumped in my car for the 3 hour drive home.  Turns out it was a great idea that I left right away as people are stuck in line to get out of Auckland for something like 3 hours (there are border checkpoints to make sure you have reasons you need to leave the level 3 area).

Wait- I forgot to mention that my friend's daughter (whom I also met at Ignition) runs a coffee cart that was at Shipwrecked.  I stopped by to say hello to her a couple times at Shipwrecked, thinking that I'll get to see her after the festival when staying with them.  I learn when talking to my friend after the festival (and didn't notice either) that her boyfriend whom I also met is also American, apparently also a software engineer.

Level 3 only lasted 3 days and the rest of the country went to level 2 for 3 days.

The last day of the festival was Valentines day, February 14, 2021.

Post Valentine's day

Jacqueline tells me I'm her Valentine, making me realize we are out for lunch the day after Valentine's day.  Often the best "dates" are my friends.  We realize we haven't gone out to eat in a long time.  And the first day we go out is the beginning of Level 2.